Heated seats finally up and running at BOCC

Heated seats

PARRY SOUND – Tushies will be toasty while sitting inside the Bobby Orr Community Centre for the rest of the winter, thanks to the heated seats that were finally up and running last week.
It has been a long process to get the heating system going, a system that has never worked since being installed during the reconstruction of the facility in 2010.
At each council meeting since mid-November, Peter Brown, town director of public works, has been asked when the seats will warm arena spectators.
Last month, Brown said a contractor was hired to replace parts that were either installed incorrectly or no longer functioning and no longer available in Canada.
He was optimistic that there would be heat by Christmas, but that was not the case.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Coun, Keith Saulnier asked Brown whether there was heat in those seats.

Working

“Bleacher heating in its most simplistic form works, and it works very well,” Brown said. “We’ve had huge success with the contractor we’ve brought on. He has all three zones (of the seating) working; we’ve been testing them on a daily basis with a portable thermometer so we can track where those zones are, because we were never informed of that when (the system) was built. We have now identified where the zones are and can isolate them and we can keep them at temperature. I’ve been told that we’ve already received a few comments from the public sitting there last weekend saying that the seats were actually quite warm and they’re not affecting the ice at all.”
Brown said by improving on the existing system, BOCC operators are able to isolate the heating when there are fewer people in the community centre to save money.
“What we’re working on now, is just ensuring when we turn them on we know how long it’s going to take to heat them up. It’s just a process,” he said. “We actually have an operating manual now for this particular system and all the staff have been trained. I’m glad the ratepayers and visitors finally have the heated seats they were promised. It’s something they paid for and now have.”